The crew members of a commercial aircraft rely on instrumentation and associated sensors to monitor fuel consumption and remaining fuel stores during a flight segment. However, the information provided by such instrumentation and sensors alone does not provide any indication of real-time fuel efficiency. Instead, fuel efficiency information for a particular flight is typically calculated after the flight based on data obtained from the aircraft's instrumentation systems. Although the crew of a commercial aircraft can implement certain procedures to improve fuel efficiency during a flight segment, it is believed that there is currently no way to provide the crew with information in real-time regarding any current deficiency in expected fuel economy that would indicate that such procedures need to be implemented.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method which monitors and provides for the optimization of fuel economy of an aircraft in real-time.